The JWP
has given credit for the synthesis of element 110 to a group at the
Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany. This
laboratory has thus been invited to propose a name.

As to
elements 111 and 112, the Joint Working Party did not feel that sufficient
results have, as yet, been presented to assign credit for their discoveries.
The difficulties in confirming syntheses of the heaviest elements is
illustrated by the announcements in 1999 of the syntheses of elements
116 and 118, claims which were retracted this year. The earlier results
could not be reproduced at the originating institution, Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, nor at other centers for heavy-element synthesis
in Germany and in Japan (Science, 3 Aug. 2001, Vol. 293, pp.
777-778; C&E News, 6 Aug. 2001, p. 10; Darleane Hoffman,
private communication).

The
JWP's analysis followed a procedure that was earlier established for
elements 101-109 because claims of the synthesis of heavy elements can
be controversial. Until discoveries are confirmed, elements are provisionally
designated in terms expressing their atomic numbers in Latin, for example
"ununnilium" (one-one-zero for 110), "unununium" (one-one-one
for 111), and "ununbium" (one-one-two for 112). To avoid confusion,
discoverers are asked to use an atomic number rather than a name in
the literature until approval of a proposed name is received from IUPAC.
If a particular name has been used unofficially for a given element
but a different name is ultimately chosen, then the first name cannot
be transferred at a later time to designate a different element.